1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle handlebar support structure for supporting a steering handlebar in a sandwiched fashion between a lower holder and an upper holder in an automotive vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
It is known that in an automotive vehicle such as, for example, a motorcycle, a lower holder is mounted on a top bridge (upper bracket) on an upper end of a front fork, and a steering handlebar is, after having been mounted on this lower holder with an upper holder mounted over the handlebar, firmly sandwiched between the lower holder and the upper holder for movement together with the front fork to thereby complete the firm mounting of the steering handlebar on a motorcycle frame structure. On the other hand, it is also known that various gauges such as, for example, a speed meter and a tachometer are arranged in the vicinity of the steering handlebar and are supported on the top bridge, the lower holder or the upper holder through respective brackets. In this respect, see the Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-24290.
It has, however, been found that the vehicle handlebar support structure disclosed in the above mentioned patent document requires the use of brackets for the support of the various gauges and, accordingly, not only does the number of component parts tend to increase, but the structure becomes also complicated, resulting in an undesirable increase of the weight of the motorcycle as a whole.